


Cure for What Ails You

by SaintImperator



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game), Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi | Spirited Away
Genre: and put kohso in a happier situation after so many dark ones, this is just a strange au where i wanted to work with the pacing in miyazkai films
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-15 12:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11230611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintImperator/pseuds/SaintImperator
Summary: So a lot of people requested happier au senarios for some of my original characters.I don't like writing aus without some kind of purpose or exercise to them, so this one was to study a wildly different type of pacing then I usually work with. Miyazaki's films proceed at such a unique rate I tried to emulate it here.This au begins on an island afterlife/paradise kind of place. Kohso underwent a huge trial to broker passage for Fwahe and Frigga to paradise and had to endure a lot of shit to get there. It was another au I wrote but its traumatic and i was asked for happy things, so forgive this for being off cadence.Also I believe in this au Frigga and Fwahe are married.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tetsuna-chan](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Tetsuna-chan).



I tried to keep the nightmares and the pains a secret from them. Fwahe and her girlfriend, Frigga were so happy on their island, and I didn’t want to do anything to taint it. I had planned to return to Neverland as soon as I felt better, but a year had gone by and hardly a scar had healed. I thought it was a year anyway. It was hard to tell in places like this, places not of earth. There were plans to build a separate house or a small addition for me onto the one that Frigga had constructed. I was hoping they would soon, Fwahe had told me I was screaming in my dreams. 

In the night he came for me, her silver haired brother, Kane. His laughs echoed behind my eyelids ringing in my skull like bells in a cathedral. So long as I was asleep I was his prisoner again, drowning in chains and soaking white robes with red blood. Now I was able to beg, but the pleas fell on unfeeling ears. He liked the sounds of desperation, they made him smile. 

Things were better in the waking world, when I could get up and walk. Fwahe was always pushing me to go farther and work harder then I had the day before. Every morning she woke me, nudging me with her foot, stretching it across the house and over to my bed. She’d shake me a few times and then I’d go down to the beach to pray while she and Frigga took there time waking up. I’d kneel by the water, sometimes splashing the salt-soaked surf on my face to chase away the dreams. I kind of liked the feeling of sea spray in my hair, it took on a new texture. I’d say my prayers to Kos, Odeon and the other Great Ones then get up and check the nets for the nights catch. 

By the time I returned the Hemlocks would be up. They liked to make breakfast together even though they were bad at it. Burnt coconut mixed into taro mash that wasn’t cooked all the way through. It was stirred into lumpy porridge but Fwahe was so proud of the recipie. She often sprinkled inedible papaya seeds over the top and citing me to be especially appreciative if this “fancy” food. 

Today my knees were locked rigid. I couldn’t feel my legs and I was stuck kneeling on the shore. This was bad. 

I tried to wait it out and see if it was just a passing spasm hoping that feeling would soon return to my weakened limbs but the tide started to come in. It lapped at my fingertips, usually my cue to bring the devotions to a close. Now the early morning water came up to my wrists. 

“Fwahe!” I shouted. 

I turned backwards as best I could trying to get a glimpse of the house. I couldn’t see it. I didn’t hear anyone approaching. My voice might’ve been drowned out by the crashing waves. 

“Fwahe!” I yelled louder. 

Still nothing. The water was getting higher and I felt the cold ocean’s chill. Was I still dreaming? 

“FWAHE!” I shouted. 

I heard the door fling open. Bare feet raced across the sand and soon she was at my side. 

“What are you crying about, church boy?” She asked, “I was in the middle of making fancy breakfast for you!” 

“I can’t move.” I told her. 

“What?” She asked. 

“My legs hurt. They locked up, Fwahe. I can’t move my legs.” 

“Oh shit.” She said and wrapped her arms around me. Gently she helped me rock backwards and sit on the sand, buy my legs were still bent the same. She rubbed at them, tried to bend them but every motion sent rockets of pain shooting through my body. I couldn’t handle it. She carried me up to breakfast and sat me gently on the stairs. 

“I told you I was done with this, church boy. You were walking on your own.” She sighed. 

“It’s probably not his fault love.” Frigga said placing a bowl in my hands. There were no papaya seeds on top. “Eat your breakfast Kohso. Then we’ll figure this out.” 

I nodded and began to spoon coconut and taro mash into my mouth. Fwahe hovered worried she’d have to massage my throat again to get me to take in food. She still remembered my first days on the island though they were little more then hazy memories too me now. 

“What’s happening to your leg?” Frigga asked. 

“I don’t know.” I replied, “I told you already that-“ 

“No.” she said pointing at my lower leg, what was exposed beyond the knee-length shorts I wore. I looked down and there were what seemed to be blackish streaks of lightning rising up out of the skin like tattoos. “What’s happening to your leg?” 

“I…..” I look down at it but I can’t find words to express my terror. This is new and horrifying. 

“This is stuff of the gods.” Fwahe said simply, “Those dreams of yours must be infecting you. I’ve seen this cured at a tea house before, the Silver Star but we won’t be able to find one here.” 

“A tea house?” Frigga asked. 

Fwahe nodded, “A place of demons.” 

“No demons.” I said quickly. “Please.” 

“Of course not demons.” Frigga comforted, pulling my head to rest against her shoulder, “We’ll get this sorted out ok? Don’t you worry. You married us, you’re on this island with us and we’re going to find a way to take care of you.” 

We sat on the steps of the house like that for awhile. Fwahe got up and paced then sat beside Frigga then paced and sat beside me. 

“Why don’t we just ask Peter?” Frigga finally suggested, after a long silence. 

“No.” I said, “He never remembers anything that isn’t on Neverland….but the Black Rabbit of Inlé might.” 

“Then it’s settled.” Frigga decided. “We shall go and see him.” 

I was carried to the boat, and both of the Hemlocks refused to let me help row. My favor with Kos got us to the shores of the Neverland, but the girls could not set foot there. 

No one from the other islands could, I was only allowed because I’d originally been brought there and could travel at will. Once a god had granted you favor the rules bent a bit. I had to wait a few hours for one of the lost boys to come, and Slightly was first to find me. It was a good thing too he was one of the more intelligent of the lot and readily carried me off to the moors. I told him to come back in an hour, which was really quite the gamble since an hour on the Neverland could be twenty minutes or a full day. I hoped Frigga and Fwahe wouldn’t worry too much. 

I waited out on the moors for the rabbits to grow bold and feel comfortable with their approach. Slightly was not a quiet boy and had sent them scattering long before I was set down in the tall grasses, but time had gone by and I saw the black-tipped ears of Inlé’s scouts poking out of their warrens. Before long the black rabbit himself was standing in front of me. 

He waited, ears twitch and nose sniffing the air. 

“You certainly seem to be Kohso, but I know this can’t be true. The boy I knew was full of humility and surely would stand and bow at my approach. He went away on a noble quest, you, imposter are an insult to his memory.” The black rabbit said. 

“Forgive me wise Inlé, I mean you no insult.” I said, “I would stand and bow if only I could but my legs have stopped working and I need your council. I am the same Kohso who begged your knowledge before and returned from the God’s challenge with the purified soul of my dear friend.” 

“Frith on the hills!” Inle cried, “It is you then, surely. Kohso it is wonderful to see you on my moors again, though I wish it were under more pleasant circumstances.” 

I nodded, “Me too. I miss our talks.” 

“You must not be a stranger, and come see me more often, though I fear there are too be considerable years between now and when we will next meet. It’s no wonder to me that your legs have stopped working, you’ve been running from the things you saw in the god’s trial for so long that it is worn them to a stand still. You have a sickness of nightmares and this is the sort of ailment only gods can cure.” 

“Is there a special prayer I must say?” I asked, “For I do now carry Kos’ considerable favor.” 

But Inlé shook his head and dashed my hopes. “Prayer cannot cure something like this I’m afraid, and if it’s not quickly dealt with the paralyzation will grow and grow getting worse with every nightmare. You’re going to have to make a journey, sail towards the sun until your boat comes to rest on the edge of a glass lake. There will be train tracks running on the water. Get on the first train that stops and ride to the Bath house of the Spirits. I have been there before, and they will be able to cure you, although you’ll likely incur formidable debt.” 

“I’ve no way of paying it off.” I sighed. 

“Then you’ll have to work it off.” He shook his ear over me, and a coating of stardust fell onto my clothes, the silvery sparkles glistening where they landed. “You now are dusted with my own stars, and carry a personal recommendation. Yubaba will not deny you a job, though you might have to insist several times. Do not stop asking until she’s given you work, or else you’ll have to pay the debt in other less plesant ways.” 

I nodded, memorizing his instructions. “My companions have to come with me. I can’t reach any of these places without them to carry me, especially if this sickness gets worse. What will happen to them?” 

Inlé smiled. “They passed in the natural way, thus became spirits proper. While your humanity remains intact theirs faded away and they will be welcomed into the bath house as honored guests.” 

“Nice of the gods to give them a honeymoon.” I said. 

“We can be as gracious as we are cruel.” The black rabbit agreed. 

“Thank you, my good friend.” I said, “I will return to you when my legs work and bow more deeply and with more respect than I ever have before.” 

The black rabbit of Inlé laughed, a sound that cracked like thunder over the moors terrifying everything that wasn’t a rabbit. We were friends, but he was still a god. A god of death no less. 

Slightly showed up a few moments after the thunder had faded, bringing along Peter and the twins with him. They wished me well and carried me down to the shore, but Peter flew off before we reached the beach. I gave the Hemlocks our heading and told them what Inlé had told me. 

“We’re going to a bath house?” Frigga asked. 

“That’s what he said to do.” I replied. 

“You sure we can trust this rabbit?” Fwahe asked, “Seems sort of funny if you ask me. Glass trains and spirit houses. Even by your standards church boy, it seems nonsense. Whoever taught about Odeon taking a bath?” 

To be fair to her, I’d never heard any stories of gods bathing, but it wasn’t so ridiculous. “I think it may be more a place of healing, relaxation. That sort of thing.” 

“Those kinds of bath houses usually are dripping with pretty ladies.” Fwahe said. 

Frigga took a pause from rowing to elbow her in the ribs and fix her with an icy scowl. 

“I mean…I uh. Hear they’re dripping with pretty…erm…..pretty average ladies. I hear that. Only through the grape vine. I’d never go to a place like that to stare at those. I mean stare at place with those like that…I mean.” 

“Mmm.” Frigga said. 

Fwahe batted her eyelashes and smiled, until Frigga grinned as well and leaned across the boat for a kiss. 

The stars reflected exactly in the water below us. It looked like we were rowing through an ocean of stars. We were unable to follow the sun without its bearing in the sky, but Kos created a safe little pool for the boat to nest in while we slept gently rocking the vessel back and forth. I supposed it was her anyway, though I couldn’t be sure. The Hemlocks had to help me lie down so I could rest for the night. 

I had another nightmare, and felt Fwahe kicking me to stir me out of it. I found my hips had locked and I couldn’t turn towards her. 

“I’m awake.” I said. 

She helped me sit up with half-lidded eyes, yawning all the while. 

“What’s hurting you?” she asked. “You keep saying it hurts.” 

“Nothing now.” I said. 

“Wrong answer.” She mumbled, “It ought to be your stomach, without my fancy breakfast to fill it up.” 

“Right.” I laughed. It suddenly seemed to hurt to laugh, and I cut it off awkwardly. “Sorry. Of course it’s the lack of your gourmet meals.” 

She kissed me on the forehead. “Please get better.” 

We kept on until midday where we reached the glass ocean Inlé had talked about. There was a small platform and old train tracks. The platform was devoid of life except for one strangely large frog and his push-cart of frozen treats. He croaked at us while the Hemlocks carried me up the stairs. 

“Looks like I’ll be providing breakfast.” Fwahe said, leaving me to sit with Frigga on the platform. She sized up the frog and traded the chain from one of her many, many bells for three frozen fruit pops. 

“You can have first choice.” She said, though I noticed her hold on the strawberry one was a bit stronger then the others. Iced lemons and sugar made a refreshing breakfast over the glass sea. Frigga and Fwahe shared strawberry and cherry kisses with one another, staining each other’s lips and cheeks with sticky red syrup. 

“How long did he frog say the train was going to be?” Frigga asked, chewing the end of her popsicle stick, all that remained of her breakfast. 

“He’s a frog.” Fwahe said throwing up her hands, “He didn’t say anything.” 

She was already impatient, leaning out over the tracks and kicking her legs back and forth off the edge of the platform. I tried to do the same but they were like stone. Unmovable. 

Just as Frigga and I feared our companion would die of boredom the train came into view, just two little orange and green street cars. Fwahe scooped me up long before it came to a firm halt. She was struggling with my weight by the time the doors slid open, and she rushed inside. The train car smelled like popcorn and ceader wood. Fwahe set me down on one of the cushioned benches and set her eyes to staring at the other spirits on the train. They were intensely interesting, but I thought it would be rude to look at them with the same intensity that she did. Instead I watched the world streak by the windows, faster then I’d seen anything go before. 

I’d never ridden on a train and very seldom been in a carriage. Things weren’t supposed to streak by like this. By the time the bath house came into view I felt a little dizzy. It was a staggering thing, built up like an enormous temple covered in reds and golds that glimmered and caught the light beautifully. It’s façade was decadent but the back end was a patchwork of rooms and additions built with wicker walls and simple wooden struts. We passed beneath it, through a dirty tunnel and came out at another train station. There were attendants waiting in elegant gondolas with red silk lanterns to bring us to the bath house. They smiled and greeted by name the spirits that they knew, but regarded us with caution. 

Fwahe had no reservations. She carried me onto the nearest boat, scooting over on her seat to make room for Frigga. Her bells jangled as she settled into the seat. 

“Ermm…welcome ladies.” The attendant in our boat said. “You brought your human with you…don’t you think his smell might be off putting to other guests?” 

“Why do you think we’re taking him to a bath house?” Fwahe said. 

“Quite right.” The attendant replied, pressing the oversized oar down to the bottom of the ocean and pushing us away from the station. I watched the platform and the train disappear, looking backwards instead of forwards. The bath house was too strange a place for me to think about and looking at it returned the dizziness from the train ride. I felt something gnawing at my stomach, some unspecified feeling of impending doom. It might have been all the red everywhere. It seemed like a bad sign. 

“Excuse me.” I said to the attendant, “But do you know where I can find Yubaba?” 

“That ought to be Madame Yubaba to the likes of you.” She muttered, “What business do you have with her?” 

“I’ve got the personal recommendation of the black rabbit of Inlé and carry the blessings of Kos. I must speak with her.” I said. 

“She runs the bath house. You’ll probably find her in her office on the top floor.” She growled back at me. 

“Thank you.” I said dipping my head to her. 

Frigga and Fwahe were too enchanted by the approaching structure to make comment on my conversation. Gorgeous pink lotus flowers drifted by, the air growing heavy with the scent of flowers. The whole town near the bath house glowed with golden light, and shadowy spirits waved from the windows of the shops as the boat drifted past. 

“See your tea shop?” Frigga asked. 

Fwahe was leaning over the side of the boat, her arm drenched with river water while she tried to poke the fins of the passing koi fish. A few of them suspected her finger of being a worm and nipped at it. “Huh?” she asked. 

“The demon tea house.” Frigga reminded. “The Silver Star?” 

“Oh.” Fwahe said, shaking the excess water of her hand and looking at the passing shops. “No. It’s not here.” 

“I suppose that’s a relief.” Frigga said, “Though it wouldn’t hurt to fall back to it if this Yubaba person can’t cure Kohso.” 

“Your human is sick?” The attendant asked. 

I blushed as Fwahe let loose a torrent of angry words on the poor bath house employee. Her stream of anger didn’t stop until we’d reached the docks and she continued to berate the poor girl even as she was scooping me up and carrying me off of the boat. Frigga tried to get her to calm down but I figured as to why she was acting like this pretty easily. She hadn’t been able to speak up when people insulted her for being a Vileblood. Now that she was an immortal spirit she wasn’t going to take any intolerance from anyone. 

There was a beautiful garden pathway that led up the side of the hill the bath house was situated on up to the main entrance. Hydenga bushes lined the walk way. Frigga stopped to pluck one of the blossums and nestle it behind Fwahe’s ear. Neither of them noticed the scowling little frog who watched as they stole from the garden. What’s worse other spirits noticed and began to adorn themselves as well. A few of the bushes ended up being picked clean. 

There was a parade of spirits coming into the bath house, and I was rather ashamed to admit I didn’t recognize a one of them. I thought the Anointed Texts would have taught me all I needed to know of Gods but there were hundreds here. Every mentionable religion might’ve had a representative in this building and I was in awe. Inside the bath house gleamed, every bit of it trying to outshine the other and draw your eye. There were gold panels inlaid with beautiful paintings of flowers. The gridded ceiling was dappled with similar nature motifs. I didn’t know where to focus, head turning from side to side. Everything was beautiful. 

“Right this way.” One of the attendants said, leading us down the red carpets that covered the gleaming floors. “I’ll show you to your room.” 

“Actually could you take me to see Yubaba?” I asked. 

“It’s urgent.” Fwahe cut in before we could be denied. 

“Very well.” The attendant said, leading us down a different hall. “Right this way.” 

The elevator was very beautiful too, padded with green velvet and shiny gold inlay. Frigga took a moment to admire herself reflected in gold as the attendant herded us all inside. 

“I’ll take you to her floor, but after that you’ll be on your own. She doesn’t like to be disturbed.” 

Fwahe was about to tell the attendant off again but I cut in and thanked him before she could. We didn’t need to start any fights. The mechanism rose smoothly upwards and my stomach churned as we rose. 

“I feel dizzy.” I told Fwahe. 

The attendant shuddered. Fwahe tried to readjust her hold on me. She almost dropped me, but Frigga stepped in and took up the carrier’s position. I hated doing this to them. I should have been stronger, somehow fought off these nightmares on my own. 

We stepped out of the elevator a few moments later to a room encrusted with jewels. Frigga and Fwahe stepped forward, pushing open closed doors that led to more jewled rooms and more doors. Hall after hall, room after room like walking through a kalidescope. We crossed Persian rugs and saw our reflections in glimmering polished mirrors. I looked more pathetic then I would have liked. 

“Leave him.” A scratchy old voice barked. 

We all collectively jumped and looked around for the speaker. There was no one in the room, unless they were hiding in the enormous porcelain vases that lined the wall. 

“Down here.” 

Our eyes were drawn to the door knocker, which was made in the shape of an elderly wrinkled face. When it spoke the metal moved, carving and re-carving itself into the liquid shapes of a moving mouth. 

“Are you going to stand around and gawk all day?” The door knocker asked. 

“It’s alright.” I told the Hemlocks. “Put me down. I think I’ll be able to handle a door knocker.” 

“Yes yes.” The strange thing encouraged, “Go on down to the baths and relax. You spirits are welcome here.” 

The spirits were, but that was saying nothing of me. Frigga put me down gently on the expensive carpet. I felt like my weathered island clothes were grossly out of place here. How could I dare to wear a shawl stitched together from canvas sail and pants made out of old feed sacks in front of gods? I felt supremely under-dressed and now I was about to encounter the proprietor of the establishment. 

When the doors behind me closed, sealing Frigga and Fwahe back in the remainder of the bath house the ones in front of me opened. Yubaba was not what I expected. She was as wrinkled as the door knocker, with white hair twisted up into a style that looked rather like a seagull’s nest. She wore a simple navy dress the very same sort that Yharnam schoolmistresses were fond of. Her hands were covered with rings and a long cigarette was billowing great clouds of smoke, poised in the corner of her lip. 

“Madame Yubaba, I’ve come to beg for your help.” I said. 

“Help? Why would I ever want to help you?” The old woman asked. 

“T-the black rabbit of Inlé told me to come. I’m sick Madame Yubaba. This is the only place I can get well.” I said. 

“I don’t make a business of helping humans.” Yubaba said. She pulled in a long breath of smoke, breathing the white clouds out from her bulbous nose. It really was an enormous thing, the face on the clock tower that was her person. 

“I’m not asking for charity.” I said, “I want a job here to work off my debts.” 

Her eyes narrowed, pulling all the hills and valleys of her face together into one singular vision of hatred. “There’s no job for you here.” 

“Please, you’ve got to give me a job.” I pleaded. 

The black rabbit had warned me she would try to turn me away in any manner she could. I was prepared to insist for as long as she continued to deny me. I had suffered over a thousand deaths for the soul of my friend, I could spend a few hours arguing with an old bath house keeper. This did not phase me. 

“There aren’t any jobs for a cripple like you.” Yubaba said, “You wouldn’t be worth the cost of a uniform.” 

“Please, please make me better so I can work again. I’ll work until I’ve paid for the cure, that’s what the black rabbit said to do.” 

“That long-eared reaper holds no sway here.” Yubaba spat back. “Go back to his moor and pray for rabbit feet.” 

“I also carry the blessing of the Mother of the Seas.” I said. 

That seemed to spark her interest. Gold flecks of greed flickered behind the brown of her eyes. She took another portion of smoke, sucking it in from the cigarette like water from a straw. “I suppose I must take you on then. Loathsome oath to hire anyone who asks, and crueler still to have a cripple thrust into my generous arms. It just wouldn’t do to turn away someone with Kos’ blessing. She could poison our water and put me out of business.” 

“I suppose she-“ 

“Don’t speak.” Yubaba snapped at me, “If you’re going to work here then you’re going to have to comply with our rules. No spirits want a human hanging around them, and if you are going to talk to them always addresses them properly. We use sirs and ma’am’s here understand?” 

“Yes ma’am.” I said. 

As she began to list off the various and endless regulations of her bath house, Yubaba’s desk came to life. Her pens moved of their own accord, parchment unrolling, inkwells popping open all on their own. It was amazing to watch such casual magic being done, and as Yubaba paced in front of me I tried to crane my neck and see past her so I could keep watching. I ended up falling over instead. 

“Useless.” Yubaba grimaced, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers, “Humans already giving me a headache.” 

She waved her free hand, rings jangling. The paper floated through the air, bringing a paint brush along with it. When I looked at the paper everything was written in strange symbols, none of which seemed to make sense to me. Vicar Lanthem had told me never to sign anything I hadn’t read, and I wanted to know what I was getting into. Were these characters the language of the gods? 

“Madame Yubaba…I can’t read this.” I said. 

“It’s not my responsibility to teach you how to read, just sign the bottom. Do you want the job or not?” She muttered turning to look through a chest of drawers. 

“Yes ma’m.” I said. 

I touched brush to paper and made the attempt to write my name but it was like trying to push open a door you needed to pull. The brush simply would not conform to the shapes I wished it to make. 

“What’s the matter? Do you not know how to write, either?” 

“Not in the language of the gods ma’am.” I said. 

She laughed, “Language of the gods? It’s Japanese you worthless boy.” 

My cheeks went red, but with a snap of her fingers the writing changed from Japanese to English and I was allowed to sign my name. Another snap and it switched back, returning to Yubaba’s hands. 

“Ah, your name is Kohso then?” She asked. 

“Yes ma’am.” I said. 

“How fitting for one who carries the blessing. But a lie all the same, this is not your true name. You were born under a different one.” 

“I don’t know it.” I said. 

The old woman shook he head and rolled her eyes at me, annoyed that I did not know things beyond my knowledge. Yubaba waved her hand over the bottom of the contract, and the characters that composed my name in her laungague rose off of it and hovered in the air. She snatched them up, just like a kid grabbing candies at Yule. 

“Much too fitting if you ask me. From now on you’re called Sosu. You can have your name back when your debts paid, provided you remember it. Is that understood?” 

Would I ever be able to keep what was mine? 

“Yes ma’am.” I said. 

“Now as for your condition Sosu, you could easily cure it if you’d stop having nightmares. However human minds are exceptionally weak-willed when it comes to such things, so from now on you’ll have to wear these.” 

In her hands she held four golden bands. They had sea fauna, crabs and fish set into them with peals and enamel. 

“Two for your wrists two for your ankles.” She told me, “Go on hurry up and put them on.” 

“Yes ma’am.” I said. 

The bands must have been as magical as the rest of the things in Yubaba’s room. There was a small slit down the back of each. Were they standard things it would take a considerable amount of effort to pry them open, slowly working the malleable metal open, slip it on and press it closed. Everything about Yubaba’s process was expedited. When I pressed the golden band to my ankle the metal came alive almost, opening wide then closing around my ankle to perfectly fit the shape. I could wiggle my toes again. I could feel my knees. 

“You must not take them off until you’re fully cured. You’re going to have to spend an hour a day breathing in the air by the sea, which will purify your lungs, so be sure to finish your duties on time.” 

“Yes ma’am.” I said getting up from the ground and giving her a proper church bow. I could stand. I could bow. My hips and legs moved the way they were supposed to. I could not banish the grin that spread across my face. 

“Keep your hands at your sides! What nonsense gesture is that?” She barked. 

I changed positions and bent forwards again, until my hair flopped over, the tips of my bangs brushing my toes. “Yes ma’am.” 

“Better.” She muttered, “And one more thing you must do, Sosu. Every morning you’ll have to wake up before the sun and climb to the top of the bath house. There is a brass bell and a wooden hammer in a rooftop shrine. Pray to your gods and ring the bell. Do this with unwavering consistency and you will see the infection start to recede. Once they’re gone you’ve only to work off your debt and then I’ll be rid of you.” 

“Yes ma’am.” I said, “Thank you.” 

“Now go see the foreman and get to work. I can’t waste another second on meaningless conversation.” 

I gave a final “yes ma’am” before heading back to the elevator. I was so happy to have my legs back that it wasn’t until the elevator doors closed around me that I realized I had no idea where to go to find the foreman. I stood in the unmoving elevator looking over the markings for the different levels. They too, were written in Japanese and made no sense to me. My hand hovered above the lever, and as if it grew impatient the mechanism moved for me, sending the elevator rocketing downwards. 

I thought perhaps I’d be returned to the lobby level that we’d come in at. Not so, the elevator had taken me to a different floor which was packed with all kinds of workers in uniforms moving tiles, sweeping floors, washing windows and running around with buckets of cleaning supplies and armloads of towels. It reminded me of the cleaning weeks before Yule back at Odeon Chapel. 

The foreman was easy to find, a tan frog at the head of a large counter who seemed to be croaking orders at everyone. He wore a pointed black hat and never seemed to close his mouth for more than a second. I weaved through the torrents of attendants, making my way to his podium. 

“Excuse me, Mr. Foreman.” I said. 

“And make sure to water the hydrangeas and order new tulips!” The foreman burbled at a fleeing woman in a purple tunic with yellow flowers on it. “Tulu! Have you scrubbed out the rooms in floor 8 yet?” 

“Excuse me!” I said again, this time a little louder. 

An enormous shadow darkened both my face and the Foreman’s. I turned around to see a very tall creature, the likes of which I would’ve tried to slay in Yharnam. He had wolfish features, actually wolfish with a tail and ears and big canine feet. His uniform had no flowers on it, but was navy In color. The wolf spoke. 

“I told you I wasn’t going to do it. I’m with the landscaping division now. Find someone else.” He snapped at the irate frog. 

“Tulu I swear to-“ 

“Careful now, they might hear you.” Tulu snapped, turning tail and heading off while the Foreman shouted cautious condemnations at him. 

“Excuse me!” I tried again, as loud as I could manage. 

The Foreman puffed out the pouch in his throat, common to frogs but not men. His eyes bulged halfway out of his head before he glared down at me. 

“What do you want, can’t you see I’m busy?” 

“Madame Yubaba told me to come see you about a job she-“ 

“Great.” He muttered, “You can take care of the rooms on the eighth floor! Shay” 

I heard the sound of hoofs clattering across the floorboards. I turned to see another one of the stranger attendants in the bath house. While most seemed to be humans with obscured proportions or frogs, Tulu had been mostly wolf and this approaching one, Shay had a few deer-like qualities to him. He resembled a faun of the old myths, though he bore the full scope of a deer’s antlers instead of curved ram horns. 

“Yes Sir?” He asked. 

“Take this one and clean the rooms that Tulu was supposed to on the eighth floor. And don’t be all day about it!” 

“Yes Sir!” Shay and I said at the same time. 

He chuckled and brought me over to a board full of wooden tags. Once again I was foiled by the Japanese writing and couldn’t find the one that belonged to me, though I tried, eyes searching while I tried to recall what the strange characters that composed my half-name looked like. 

“What’s your name?” Shay asked, tapping an impatient hoof. 

“Ko…I mean it’s Sosu.” I said. 

It only took Shay a moment to locate the tag that belonged to me. He bit it before handing it to me, leaving teeth marks in the wood. 

“There. Now you should be able to find it next time.” He said. 

“Thanks.” I muttered. 

Shay showed me where to move my tag and piled cleaning supplies in my arms. I jostled with a wooden bucket brimming with rags, soap and the handle of a mop which kept trying to poke me in the eye. Every time we passed into a room Shay had to duck down, so his antlers wouldn’t scrape the ceiling. 

“We’ll need to get you a uniform too.” Shay said, “They won’t let you work in those old rags.” 

“They’re all I had, Sir.” I said. 

“Mmm.” He muttered, “Something gold for you would be best, match those bands of yours but that’s for the upper echelon. They asked me what color I wanted and I said lavender with white flowers. You see what they gave me?” 

“Navy, Sir?” I asked. 

“Navy!” He grimaced. “Navy, the color of nothing. It’s awful. I’ve petitioned for lavender several times but the Foreman never takes it to Yubaba. Says he’s got better things to worry about. Bigger fish to fry. I ask you Sosu, how am I supposed to serve such lovely spirits in such ornate settings without a proper outfit myself? Navy is a blight on the reputation of this bath house, a cigarette burn on a Renissance masterpiece. Sacralige.” 

Shay flung open another closet and began to make a mess of the neatly folded uniforms within. 

“Well you’ll simply have to work with pink. I refuse to give you anything in neutrals, they are the salt of the earth.” 

“I…I don’t mind neutrals, Sir.” 

He gasped and tossed a pair of pink pants at me, “Don’t defile my ears with such rubbish Sosu!” 

Before I could make up my mind on whether to apologize or explain a matching pink shirt was tossed at my head. 

“Hurry up and put those on while I find you an apron.” Shay said. 

“Right here in the hall?” I asked. 

“No one’s going to spare a second glance at a human, trust me.” He said, “But there’s a screen down the hall you can hide behind if you’re worried about your modesty.” 

I certainly was. 

The new clothes were a bit baggy and billowy in places, but they had little ties and pull strings wrapped into them for ease of different configurations. Simple but well made, the cut would suit me if not the color. I didn’t have anything against pink, it just seemed a little bright. 

“And this too!” Shay shouted. For the third time I was hit in the face by projectile clothing. This time it was an apron, in the twice cursed color of navy that the deer attendant claimed to hate. It had a crab stitched into the front of it. 

It was hard scrubbing whatever had gotten into the floorboards out of them. I almost wanted to flood the room and just let it soak, like with dishes. It had only been a few days of paralysis but my legs had grown very weak in that time, and they cramped with relative regularity. Shay took his time getting back, as when I heard his hoofs clattering across the ground I’d already gone over the wood several times. 

There wasn’t much difference, to be fair and Shay seemed to doubt I’d done any work at all. “You really could’ve tried a little harder you know.” He told me. 

“Sorry sir.” I said, “Whatever’s in the floor just won’t come out.” 

He set a tray of food down on the floor outside the room. He came inside and leaned down at the floor getting a good look at the blackened wood. 

“My mistake Sosu.” Shay chuckled, “I didn’t realize they were following you.” 

“They?” I asked. 

He put a finger to his lips and motioned me over to the soap bucket. It was nothing special, and I leaned in closer to the soapy water trying to see what it was Shay blamed the unclean floors on. In a flash Shay made a dive for the bucket, knocking it over with his antlers and spilling suds all over the floor. He hadn’t launched himself towards the water but beyond it, at the long shadow the bucket had cast. He was wrestling with something, something smallish. It was too tiny for me to see but as Shay wrestled with it, black streaks appeared on his navy robe. 

“Gotcha!” He cried triumphantly holding the tiny creature out for me to see. It looked like a little round makeup brush, extremely fuzzy, and black with big white eyes. Two little arms dangled beneath its body and Shay held it upside down by two little legs. 

“What’s that?” I asked him. 

“You’re being followed by a soot sprite! Nasty little things, its been trailing around making a mess of the floor every time you scrub it. They’re Komajii’s little pests. Let’s hurry up and eat, then you can take this little guy back to the boiler room where he belongs.” 

“Yes Sir.” I said. 

Shay forced the unwilling little fuzzball in through the neck of a bottle. He quickly jammed a cork in and the fuming little creature began to coat the inside of the glass with soot. Shay shook the bottle trying to get the soot sprite to settle down. He set it to the side and passed me a bowl of rice and two thin wooden sticks. 

“What are these for?” I asked. 

“For….eating?” Shay asked, “Humans do eat right?” 

“Of course we eat!” I said, “But we don’t eat wood!” 

“Of course you don’t eat the wood! Why would you eat the wood?” 

I held the two sticks up, “Because you said the wood was for eating!” 

Shay started to laugh so hard he fell on his side, kicking his legs in the air and making wheezing gasps for breath. 

I didn’t see what was so funny. 

“You don’t eat the chopsticks, Sosu. You use them to eat. Their utensils.” Shay informed me. He deftly twirled the chopsticks in his hands before bringing the bowl of rice to his mouth and flicking grains into his mouth with the wooden sticks. “Like this.” 

I picked up my own bowl, and before I could try to eat from it Shay put a few slivers of roast vegetable on top of my rice. 

“Uhh…thanks.” I said. 

“Jeeze where are you from Sosu?” Shay asked me. 

“Yharnam. It’s in England.” I told him. 

“No wonder you’re so weird. Look you’re supposed to do it too, give the best part of the meal to the other person…or something you think they’d like. Some of the foods offer different qualities, for instance cooked carrots, so that you can better see what you’ve missed. I hope you’ll remember to keep an eye out for soot spirts.” 

“Oh…oh yes sir!” I said. Fumbling with the chopsticks I tried to move a piece of pork from the tray to Shay’s bowl, but it ended up falling on his apron. “Sorry.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Shay said picking the meat up and draping it over my vegetables, “I’m vegetarian anyway.” 

Right. Of course he was vegetarian. I should’ve known from the fact that he was halfway a deer. I made blunder after blunder, spilling more food into my lap then I managed to move past my lips. The soot sprite in the bottle behind us let out whimpering little squeaking sounds. It sounded like he was saying “kerro-kerro”. 

“Don’t mind it.” Shay said, mixing a black sauce into the rice at the bottom of his bowl, “If you fed it any of this food it would die. They only eat konpeito. Little sugar star candies. There are people who harvest the stardust for them, so don’t let it fool you.” 

“Yes sir.” I said, but still it’s big eyes were wearing on me. When we were done Shay gave me a moment to sponge off my apron before relating directions to Kamajii. It seemed I would have to navigate more elevators until I reached the bottom floor. 

“Hurry back Sosu.” Shay said, “Kamajii will try to get favors out of you but don’t stay to refill his teapot or organize his shelves. Drop the soot sprite off and come straight back. We’ve got more rooms to clean.” 

“Yes sir!” I said and began to travel through the bath house. Floor after floor went by. These open air elevators showed me everything. I caught sight of what appeared to be giant ducks swimming around an enormous bath tub. I went past the kitchen and saw fish big enough that they might’ve been cut open and used for sleeping bags. Every floor held something different and intensely interesting. That was until I reached Kamajii’s floor. The elevator let out directly in front of a tiny wooden door. I felt like Alice from Carrol’s tales, having to bend down and crawl through it. I nearly got my shoulders stuck in the small entry way. 

The room I stepped into was small and hot. The door had been set into an enormous wall of drawers, all of them labeled with more Japanese characters. A parade of soot sprits was carrying coal into a furnace which was being stoked and monitored by a rather odd man. He reminded me of an Amygdala, due to his extra long arms. There were also six of them, which seemed nessecary for his profession. Kamajii didn’t stop moving. He spun wheels, pulled ropes and sipped tea directly from a yellow pot. 

“Excuse me, Mr. Kamajii, sir?” I said, dropping into the bow that Yubaba had taught me. 

He heard me right away, unlike the foreman. He turned to face me and I saw that he was wearing beady black glasses and his mouth was covered almost entirely by a bushy brown moustache. The size of his nose would’ve given Yubaba’s a run for its money. 

“What? Who’s that?” He asked. 

“It’s…it’s uh Sosu. I’m here to return one of your soot sprites, Sir.” I said holding out the bottle to him. 

Whatever hand was able to spare its task reached out and took it from me, lifting it by the neck. He had enormous fingernails that were almost claws. Very Amygadalan. Perhaps they were related and I’d prayed to a relative of his. This didn’t seem like the time to ask. 

“Naughty thing, running away again.” Kamajii grumbled. “This one tries to shirk work whenever he can. Dump him with the others, won’t you?” 

“Yes sir!” I said. 

He handed the bottle back to me and I went over to the recess in the floor which held all the soot sprites. The bug eyed creature which had been so resistant to climb into the little milk bottle now stuck his arms and legs against the glass bracing itself and refusing to be shaken out of the bottle. I tired to reach in and scoot the little guy out with my finger but it was like touching flour. The instant I made contact it dissipated to coal dust. 

“Get back to work or I’ll turn you to soot!” Kamajji hollered. 

The soot sprite squeaked and let out a “kerro-kerro” in a much lower tone. He sounded like he was complaining but climbed out of the bottle and joined his fellow sprites in the coal carrying parade. 

“I’ve got to get back now, Mr. Kamajii, sir!” I said, bowing once more before crawling back through the tiny door. 

The elevator sure took its time getting back up to Shay’s floor. The room we’d just cleared out was sparkling, furniture arranged with a dazzling eye for detail. Much of it was color coordinated floral patterns which must have been the deer-spirts work. 

I checked next door and that room was in identical condition. He’d done the whole thing by himself. The third room ended up being the one with Shay in it. He was bent-backed and scrubbing the floor, but looked up when I came in. 

“Thought you were never coming back.” He said. 

“Sorry. The sprite didn’t want to come out of its bottle.” I explained. 

“Ah. They never do until the boiler man threatens them.” Shay said. “We’ll just finish up this one and call it a day. The night crew can get the rest.” 

“I thought the foreman wanted them all done.” I said. 

“The foreman can kiss my ass.” Shay said, “It’s an impossible amount of work for two people and one evening, plus its your first night here. You’re going to need your rest. We’re not expecting any guests except for-“ 

“Church boy!” 

Both Shay and I turned around to see Fwahe and Frigga hand and hand lead up the stairs by a bumpy tan frog carrying a green paper lantern. They were dressed in new clothes, which were different from mine yet similar. I expected that was due to the eastern origin of our new dress. Fwahe was wearing something that was somehow both pants and a skirt and a gossamer jacket with long trailing sleeves which she already seemed to have stained. Her hair was less tangled then usual. Frigga on the other hand had been pushed over the edge of her usually well-kept appearance. 

She was clad in every inch of finery the bath house staff had to offer. From the ornaments in her hair to the shade of blush on her cheeks everything worked together to give her an ethereal beauty. I wasn’t much of one for girls, but I knew this was the sort of perfection that turned the heads of anyone, male or female who she walked past. They’d put her in black and white robes embroidered with foreign flowers in metallic golds and silvers. Pink silk wrapped around her waist and she wore pink slippers with little golden flowers on them. 

Fwahe pushed past the frog and pulled me into a hug. 

“Ma’am please don’t hug the staff!” The little frog said. 

She stuck her tongue out at him and hugged me tighter. 

“Thank you for showing us to our room.” Frigga said sweetly, smoothing things over with the little attendant. “We’ll be quite alright on our own now. Could you send up some food?” 

“Of course Madame! Right away!” He grinned a wide grin and hopped down the stairs. 

“You’re walking!” Fwahe said. “And you’re wearing pink?” 

“Your friends with spirits?” Shay asked. 

“It’s complicated.” I said, answering them both at once. 

Frigga and Fwahe took up residence in the first room we cleaned, where I had found the soot sprites. The window looked out onto the sea, and I remembered that I was supposed to be out on the rooftop taking in the ocean air. When the frog came back with their food, Fwahe opened the rice paper door and we sat in a row on their balcony looking out over the sea. If I really strained I could see the train tracks we’d come in through. 

Their meal was mostly fruits, with a pot of black tea and thin cookies for dipping. Fwahe took the entire bowl of strawberries and held them in her lap, occasionally drenching her sleeve in tea as she leaned over to dunk them in the sugar. 

“So it looks like you’re all healed up then.” Frigga said, “We’ll return to the island tomorrow.” 

There was a somber touch in her voice, and she looked over her shoulder at the many blankets and pillows rolled up on the shelf for sleeping. She must have been anticipating a few more nights with Fwahe. 

“Hardly.” I told her, picking at pomengranate seeds. “These cuffs are just a temporary fix so that I can work. Madame Yubaba says that I have to breathe in the sea air and ring a special bell every morning to get better. I’m going to have to stay a lot longer, and longer still after that to pay her back.” 

Frigga put a hand on my back, rubbing up and down. “Hey, that’s ok. We’ll stay here as long as you need. Kos will keep our island safe and it’s not as though these are unpleasant quarters.” 

“I just feel bad, taking you away from your lives.” I said. 

“It’s only because of you we’re able to have one.” Fwahe said, “If you hadn’t saved my soul I’d be dieing a thousand deaths in some abyss.” 

“A thousand isn’t so bad.” I muttered. 

“What was that, church boy?” Fwahe asked. 

“Nothing.” I covered, taking a long sip of tea. It was bitter and needed more sugar but that too was now hoarded by the Vileblood. 

“Plus I haven’t gotten to use their big tubs yet.” Fwahe said, “and the water is so warm here. They make it smell so good. Frigga got to have a bath with flower petals in the water!” 

“I did.” Frigga smiled, “It was very refreshing.” 

“Not that we don’t love our island.” Fwahe was quick to add, “It’s wonderful it’s just…” 

“It’s really nice to have clean clothes again.” I said. 

“Yes!” They replied in unison. 

“Even if they are pink.” Fwahe teased. 

I gave her a nudge with my foot, then she nudged me back. I wasn’t the one she wanted to be nudging though, and truth be told I had to get up extremely early tomorrow. Sunset was nearly over and I wanted to fall asleep before the stars came out. 

“I’ve really got to get going.” I said, “That bells got to be rung first thing in the morning before anyone gets up, and then I’ve got to work tomorrow. I have to get it all done so I can breathe in the ocean air so it can make me better.” 

“Please get better, church boy.” Fwahe said. 

I promised her I would before shutting the door to their room behind me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A war breaks out

The bedroom reminded me of being a novice in Odeon Chapel. None of the novices were given a room of their own before they reached ten, and while we had bunks and the bath house had rolls on the floor there was a community familiarity about it that I’d forgotten I’d missed. Shay showed me where all the bedding was kept. The cabinet was built out of cedar and bathed all the blankets in its autumnal fragrance. 

“Orange blossom for you I think.” Shay said, filling my arms with folded blankets. 

“Is what I sleep in really that important sir?” I asked. 

“Of course it is!” Shay gasped, “Good bedding is the foundation of beautiful dreams and restful sleep. A fine damask can change your entire outlook on life, overbearing stripes or gods forbid polka dots can ruin a man.” 

I didn’t think that was true but I let him have his fun. There was some small amount of shuffling that had to be done to fit my bedding in with the dozen or so other people that slept in the same room. I was pushed towards the sliding rice-paper doors, the hem of my duvet often getting stuck in the doors track. Whenever someone got up to get water or use the bathroom I felt a cold rush of air, and I found it difficult to get into any restful sleep. 

I waited for morning rather than meeting it with rested eyes. As soon as I suspected the sun might come up I slipped out of my blankets and headed for the rooftop. It was hard to find, the bath house was a tall and haphazard things. So many of the rooms branched off from each other into long hallways that terminated and led nowhere. The sun was going to be up soon, and I couldn’t afford to miss ringing this bell. Every day I was still sick was another debt I had to pay. 

I was getting desperate, foregoing good judgement and common sense I decided to climb out one of the windows and hope for the best. It wasn’t the first time I’d taken to rooftops. No matter how many lectures I received from Sister Veera nor threat of beating from the High Vicar could get me down. The bath house shingles were tiny layered clay arches, different from the roofing on Yharnam’s buildings but still easy to grip with bare feet. A few swallows roosted in the eaves and under the drain pipes. I missed the aviary, though I never wanted to hear from Ludwig, Lawrence or any of the other church founders ever again. Not that I ever would. 

I had a long way to go before the sun rose. What I had thought was the top of the bath house was merely half-way. It had been so long since I had done any sort of scaling like this, but my limbs seemed to remember how just fine. I quickly discovered hand holds in the old bricks and crumbling plaster. There were spaces to gain leverage with my legs whenever I found a drain pipe to balance on. I was climbing the backside of the bath house, which faced the sea. It was not the beautiful façade we’d come in on but more industrial. There was no red paint or gold lief, just old water stains and varying shades of beige. More humble, and more of what I was accustomed too. 

There was a small shrine on top of the bath house, and right next to it a small wash stand. The side of the structure hadn’t been all too clean and I was grateful for the chance to wash up before praying. 

The shrine looked a little bit like a gazebo, but a lot simpler in construction. It was built primarily of four wooden posts, painted red and a golden tiled roof. Only the outside was painted, inside everything was polished dark brown wood. Benches ran along each wall, and there were cushions to kneel on surrounding the bell which hung from the center. It was a simple thing, made out of burnished brass or copper, not at all as fancy as I’d expected. I bowed before stepping into the shrine and kneeling down on one of the cushions. 

It was damp from rainwater, and unpleasant to be seated on. The swollen fabric squashed around my knees and smelled stale. I would have to find time to replace them, or inform someone who could. 

I didn’t know any of Madame Yubaba’s gods. Every one of the spirits I’d seen at the bath house was unfamiliar to me. I didn’t want to offend them by not paying a proper tribute, but they were beyond naming. Were Frigga and Fwahe technically goddesses now? I suppose I could’ve offered them my words of devotion but it felt grossly out of place. 

“Mother Kos,” I began. Rather informal I thought on second pass, “Most honored Mother Kos, I know I’m by a different sea now but it’s still me your devoted one. I’m far from the shore you brought me too and the islands you can protect me on but I’m very sick. I’m sick and working here is the only way that I can get better. Please put some strength in my bones, help me to wake up before the sun. Keep me from offending Madame Yubaba with my English ways and help me complete my duties so I can breathe in the air from your sea. I long to return to your shore Mother Kos, please help me get there.” 

It was a bit of a selfish prayer but it was the first of many. I found the wooden hammer resting underneath one of the benches and took the handle in both hands before striking the bell. It was a deep tinny sound, not like a church bell and not like a hunter’s bell but more of something used in a song. It was beautiful. The first pink rays of dawn sunlight were beginning to reflect on the water as I hurried away from the temple and back inside the bath house. There was an access hatch that I discovered which cut my travel time in two. 

Even getting turned around a few times on my way back, I was in the room before Shay was awake. A few of the other workers had stirred and were folding up their blankets. I copied their methods and stored mine away as the deer spirit started to stir. 

“Good morning Sosu.” He said. 

“Morning Sir.” I replied. 

He yawned, stretching his arms and neck to their furthest. His antler scratched the ear of the slumbering worker next to him. It was drowsily batted away. 

“Early riser. Good. Go get breakfast.” Shay said, “I still need some beauty rest.” 

With that he folded an arm under his chin and went back to sleep before I could say “yes sir.” The other workers were filing out of the room and I followed after them. A few gave me sideways glances or covered their noses with their sleeves and muttered something about human scent. I couldn’t help that I wasn’t one of them but it did lower my spirits. 

The dining hall functioned on two levels, an upper floor for the guests and below were long trestle tables right next to the steaming kitchen. The other workers spoke amongst themselves excitedly in the breakfast line, discussing the menu and their day’s work. 

“Heard they stuck him with Shay.” 

“Komaji is going to kill me for being late with the tea.” 

“Only 4 more months then I’m outta here.” 

All little scraps of the people surrounding me. I became so obsorbed in trying to figure them out that the line got away from me. I felt two hands pushing me forward. 

“Hey! Let’s go!” 

I turned around and saw a boy dressed just like me, who looked like a human and a mouse had been fused together. His hair was brown and patchy and he had ears that were rather like a rodent’s. 

“S-sorry.” I stammered stumbling forward and taking a tray from the stack. He actually snarled at me, like an animal. It was very strange that the spirits just exsisted in these half-transformations. No one used blood ministrations here, even if they did I doubted it would work. I was trying not to be alarmed by the variety of fangs and claws in the people who prepared breakfast. 

There were no pastries bacon or eggs. It was more rice some fish and steamed vegetables. It seemed a strange meal to begin the day with but I accepted everything with grateful bows before hurrying back to Shay. He was still asleep and I had to gently shake him to get him to stir for breakfast. He took so long to rise that we had to wolf down breakfast a few seconds before work began. I was still wiping grains of rice off my lips while the Foreman issued orders. 

We were back where we’d been last night. More of the same, just without the soot sprites. The bath house food gave me more energy than I’d had since the nightmare paralysis seized me and I was glad to put it to work. We finished the whole floor before noon and Shay, so impressed gave me the rest of the day off. 

I spent my hour on the rooftop closest to the sea, taking in the spray and watching the tides flow in and out. It was a lonesome space, vast and empty. I hadn’t spoken very much today and sought the company of my closest friend. 

No one seemed to want me to wander around the bath house. Several times I was barked at by frogs to get back to work before they realized I wasn’t part of their crew. As I gazed down from high balconies looking for Fwahe I caught glimpses of gods that seemed to be my own. In a tub on the lower floor I could’ve sworn there was an Amygdala relaxing in the green herbal waters, but I blinked and it was gone, I had seen it wrong. 

She was nowhere to be found inside so I searched the gardens and the village. The shops were populated by black shadows who waved and beckoned trying to draw people into their shops. Their food smelled sweet but I wasn’t hungry and continued looking for Fwahe. 

“Church boy!” She shouted. 

She was up on the roof above a bakery, grinning at me and waving to get my attention. On the roof next to her was a basket of oranges. 

“What are you doing?” I called up to her. 

“Shh!” She shouted, “You’ll blow my cover. Get up here!” 

I didn’t see any ladder or obvious entry point. Fwahe leaped from roof to aluminum awning to a pile of old crates and lobster traps, before offering me her hand. I could climb well on my own but I lacked the elegance of her long limbs and muscular legs. I seemed very awkward in comparison. 

When we reached the roof tops she made no explanation of her plan, just sat with her legs dangling over the edge, kicking back and forth. She held an orange in her hand but made no move to peel it. 

“So what are you going to do with that?” I asked. 

“No questions!” Fwahe barked. She reached behind her back and grabbed me an orange. She put it in the apron in my lap and whispered to me “We’re at war.” 

“At war?” I mumbled, “With who?” 

“I said no questions!” She exclaimed gleefully. 

Completely at a loss for her strange actions I gazed down into the street with her, rolling the orange from one hand to the other. I got distracted by leaves and old flyers tumbling down the street and dragonflies zipping around in the air, but Fwahe’s eyes stayed focused on the shop doors. I was slowly inching closer to one of the dragonflies that had landed on the nearby chimney when Fwahe grabbed my arm. 

I turned and saw Frigga coming out of the shop. She was also carrying a basket of oranges, but had a white canvas bag slung over her shoulder. She peeked out of the door and checked in both directions before stepping out into the street. Her steps were cautious, calculated and she constantly flicked her gaze from one shadowy location to the next. 

“Wait for it.” Fwahe said as Frigga proceeded down the street. “Wait for it.” 

I took the orange in my hand, trying to look for whatever danger was pursing Fwahe’s wife. 

“Now!” Fwahe shouted. 

With all her weight and energy behind it she hurled her orange projectile directly at Frigga’s head. It was Fwahe. Fwahe was the danger. 

Frigga ducked just in time. The juice and peel of the orange splashed against the side of the building and the Vileblood found she had blown her own cover. 

“Flee!” Fwahe shouted to me dramatically, “Save yourself church boy! Save yourself for Kos!” 

Fwahe was taking a dramatic stance when a fruit knocked her off balance, a brilliant throw which caught her straight in the jaw. She collapsed on the shingles, theatrically pretending to have sustained a gunshot wound. 

“My good looks. My beautiful face. Forever ruined.” She sighed, feigning a faint, “Avenge me church boy.” 

“I’m not throwing an orange at Frigga.” 

Frigga chuckled from the ground. “Then I guess I’ll just have to throw one at you Kohso!” 

It came flying for me, I dropped to the roof just in time, hitting the shingles hard. Fwahe decided that being dead was boring and grabbed more projectiles. Frigga dodged nimbly, but could not avoid everything. One of her oranges caught me in the shoulder and encouraged by both women I joined in, stealing Fwahe’s basket and fleeing to the aluminum roofing, playing both sides and lobbing oranges at the both of them. 

“I’ve been betrayed!” Fwahe cried in dismay. “Wife! Avenge me!” 

“You started this.” Frigga giggled but kept hurling oranges all the same. Fwahe jumped down from the roof, taking no regard for her own safety. A two floor jump was nothing to her legs which were used to heavy falls and lots of bounding. Together the two women chased me down and poured their basket of oranges over my head. 

“Surrender!” Fwahe demanded. 

“Never.” I laughed. 

The Vileblood scooped me up and threw me over her shoulder. “I’ve got you now church boy! You are my war prisoner and there shall be no escape.” 

“Kos in heaven, whatever shall I do?” I asked. 

She tickled the back of my neck, and I twitched, kneeing her in the stomach on accident as I was overcome with laughter. 

“He attacked me! The ruffian!” She said to Frigga. 

“Clearly the only course of action for a hooligan like this is to fill his hair with flowers.” Frigga proposed. 

“Quite right.” Fwahe agreed. “To the garden!” 

I expected Fwahe to get tired halfway through, set me down and insist I march in front of her like a proper prisoner of war. Instead she made the occasional comment about how Frigga should be an exceptionally proud general considering how notoriously difficult to bag church boys were and bore me over her shoulder the whole way back to the bath house. The garden we’d walked through the night before turned out to be much more expansive then I’d anticipated. The Hemlocks took me past beds of pansies and tulips to a low hedge maze dappled with small fountains. A shrine similar to the one I’d visited this morning waited in the center surrounded by a moat filled with koi fish. Fwahe ignored the gravel walkways preferring to leap over the low hedges and expedite her passage to the shrine. 

Frigga giggled and scolded her to the fullest extent of her ability, but quickly gave in and jumped over them with her. I wasn’t given a choice. We all cheated our way to the center of the maze. I was set down on the stairs to the temple. 

“I’ll guard this one.” Fwahe said, giving Frigga a sharp salute, “You go and gather the flowers!” 

“At ease, sergeant.” Frigga smiled before heading off to fill her arms with stolen blossoms. 

Fwahe sat down beside me on the stairs. “They aren’t working you too hard are they?” 

“I got the afternoon off, Fwahe.” I said. 

“Well…yes but.” 

“I’m fine.” I assured her, “Shay’s nice to me.” 

“The one with the?” she asked, raising her hands up to the sides of her head. She rested the thumbs there, and spread her fingers wiggling them in an imitation of antlers. 

“That’s him.” I said. 

“Stole my look.” She said. 

I shrugged, “I think he was born with it. You had to skin it off someone.” 

“Skin it off someone? Someone! Kohso I took those antlers off none other than the corrupter Sister Veera of Odeon Chapel after she attacked one of the Altered Boys!” Fwahe cried indiginatly, “It was a magnificent battle, you should have seen it-“ 

“Wait what? Sister Veera?” I asked. 

“Yes.” She confirmed. 

“Sister Veera was one of my teachers.” I said, “She taught maths and led my prayers when I was just a boy.” 

“You’re still just a boy.” Fwahe said flicking me in the nose. 

“Did she really turn?” I asked, “She didn’t seem the type…” 

“Abbot Minimus corrupted her.” Fwahe said. 

“Minimus became Abbot?” I asked. 

“Yes.” She said. “And he nearly killed everyone I know. If I hadn’t killed his assassin and helped the rest of Frigga’s Valkyeries escaped I might have showed up on your island a lot sooner.” 

“I didn’t like him much as a novice.” I said, “But I never thought he’d grow up to be anyone like…evil you know. He was a man of the church.” 

“That doesn’t automatically make someone a good person, Kohso. You know that right? It’s important to me that you know that.” 

“I know that.” I said. 

Just then Frigga came back, an enormous collection of flowers in her arms. There were so many she could hardly carry them, fallen tulips trailing behind like lost socks in the laundry. She dumped them on Fwahe’s head and the Vileblood demanded a kiss as retribution. It was quickly given and then the two of them started at me with the flowers. Fwahe preferred to stuff them into hastily made braids or lodge them behind my ears and hope for the best. Most of them fell right back out but she would just fill the void with several more. 

Frigga preferred to weave little crowns out of the flowers, using their stems part way split and chaining it together with subsequent flowers. When Fwahe really couldn’t get one flower more to stay behind my ear she struggled to learn the method from her wife and make a crown of her own. It was droopy, and Fwahe had pried most of the petals off the begonias she’d strung together but when it was done she proudly placed it on my head as though it was made of the finest metal filigree. I started making crowns too, one for each of them. Then two. Then we all got to making bracelets. They covered the bands Yubaba had given me with strings of daisies. 

“I’ll have to start calling you flower boy now.” Fwahe joked. 

“I should have made crowns for our wedding.” Frigga sighed 

“Nonsense you looked beautiful.” Fwahe laughed kissing her on the cheek. 

“You both did.” I confirmed. “It was a lovely wedding.” 

They held each other’s hands and floated the discarded flower petals on the little moat around the shrine. Koi fish came up to investigate, a few of them nibbling at the floating flowers. Fwahe began challenging them, dipping her fingers into the water and trying to pull away before they could nip her. Frigga tried to convince her to stop but she kept at it. 

I’d never had a problem watching them before, but now that I was thinking back to Odeon Chapel I was privately jealous. There had been a lot of boys in Sister Veera’s schoolroom. Many of them were easy on the eyes. Had I not been burdened with a birth and destiny beyond the Black Salt Sea maybe I would be here chasing fish with someone who looked at me the way Frigga looked at Fwahe. I felt something in my heart crack. All of a sudden I didn’t feel much like being in the garden. 

“I’m..I’m uh getting a little tired. I think I might need some food.” I said. 

“Oh we’ll go to the kitchens then!” Fwahe said, “We can-“ 

“No no, it’s fine.” I said, “I know the way. You guys just relax.” 

“But we had dinner together last night!” Fwahe said, “And it was nice. I want to eat together every night, like normal.” 

“Then I’ll just go for a lie down.” I said. 

“Let him go love.” Frigga said, “We don’t want him overworking himself.” 

“Right.” I said, throwing in a cough for good measure. “I’m still sick.” 

Fwahe began to nod rapidly, as though a lie down had been her idea all along. She offered to carry me back to the bath house but I insisted I’d be just fine on my own. I got strange looks from the bath house staff. A few of them were halfway through assigning me a new task before I was gone. I didn’t really feel like going and laying down, or eating. The room without Shay and the other workers in it was dreadfully empty. 

I sat in the center of the room for a little while, looking at the spaces where the blankets had been laid out the night before. They were missing now, missing like so many opportunities for me to have found companionship. So empty I couldn’t stand it, so I made a rather sudden decision to check in with Kamaji and see how the soot sprite I’d brought him was faring. Traveling down the elevators didn’t fill me with any excitement as it had the day before, now that I knew what the boiler room and the man who operated it looked like. 

When I knelt to open the door I was struck by a certain reluctance to enter. Kamaji was sure to ask my reason for being there, and I didn’t have a good excuse. A lonely heart didn’t seem the kind of thing the boiler man was liable to understand. I couldn’t be alone in that room, or together with the Hemlocks. I sighed and slid the door along its grove, stepping inside the small room. 

Kamaji was just as I’d left him the day before, turning wheels and pulling levers to keep the fire stoked while the parade of soot sprites carried coal back and forth. He hadn’t turned to see who came through the door, but I stood and bowed to his back anyway. My attention was instantly captured by the soot sprites as I tried to find the one I’d brought the day before. I couldn’t distinguish it from the others, each looking identical to the ones beside them. I leaned over the recess in the floor where they walked, flicking my eyes back and forth watching each individually searching for some sign of personality. 

“Speak up boy!” Kamaji barked suddenly. 

I jumped and turned to bow to him again. “S-sorry sir!” 

“Are you deaf?” He asked. 

“No Sir.” I said, shaking my head. 

“Well I should think you ought to get your ears looked at then, sonny. I’ve asked you what you’re doing here about ten times.” Kamaji said. 

“Oh…sorry.” I said, “I…Shay and I finished early, I just wanted to check up on the soot sprite, sir.” 

Kamaji laughed, “The lazy thing. That buck only gave you time off so he could take a day for himself. As you can well see the soot sprite is doing just fine.” 

“’Aaaaji!!!!” The shout turned both our heads to a metal door at the other side of the boiler room. 

Kamaji raised his eyebrows and shook his head. “Sook Jai if you’ve forgotten your key again..” He muttered. 

“Uncle ‘Aaji let me in!” The voice called again, “You wouldn’t leave your favorite nephew rotting outside in the bitter cold. Have a heart ‘Aaji, have a heart.” 

“ It’s sunny as can be outside!” Kamaji replied, before turning to me and asking, “Would you get that?” 

“Yes sir!” I said, rushing to turn the handle of the door. It was a half-rusted heavy thing and did not yield easily but with a shove from the other side I soon had it open. 

Kamaji’s nephew hardly resembled him at all. He was very tall as I imagined the boiler man might be if he decided to stand, with limbs longer then would be considered human, but he did not have the moustache or balding head of his relation. His nose was also much smaller, though still a bit large for what might be considered normal. He had a nice head of raven hair and dark almond eyes. He was wearing bath house worker clothes similar to mine in style but they were much finer in construction, deep crimson with white gold and black flowers covering them. The kind of robes that Shay would’ve envied. 

“Didn’t even get up to greet me yourself Uncle ‘Aaji? What’s this world coming to? Did you get a new assistant and replace me?” 

“You’d never be that lucky.” Kamaji said, “This boy was just here…visiting soot sprites. Introduce yourself.” 

“Yes Uncle.” He said, and bowed beautifully to me, so low his bangs scraped the floor. “I’m Sook Jai. Pleased to meet you.” 

I bowed back to him, trying to imitate his long-limbed elegance. Being merely human I didn’t manage quite so well, but did feel my bangs scrape the wood work as well. “I’m …Ko…Sosu. Sosu. Please to meet you.” 

“Kososusosu?” Sook Jai asked, “That’s rather a long one. Can’t remember the last time Yubaba let someone keep so many syllables. You must’ve come with an unusually long name.” 

“No no it’s just-“ 

“You like soot sprites Kososusosu?” He asked. 

I took it that the best course of action was to nod. 

Sook Jai took the pack off his shoulder and began rummaging through it. “How would you like to feed them?” 

“Oh very much!” I replied. 

“Excellent!” He said. He kept talking but he had stuck his face in the bag during the search and his words were caught up in the canvas. 

“Quit fooling around! You could break something!” Kamaji shouted. 

“I carried it all the way here Uncle ‘Aaji, do you really think so little of me?” 

“Yes. Yes I do.” 

Sook Jai laughed. He handed me a brown wax paper bag heavy with something like pebbles inside. 

“Break time!” Kamaji bellowed. 

The soot sprites set down their coal and flocked to the edge of the floor recess that contained them. Sook Jai continued taking things out of his pack. He set them on the ground and Kamaji’s arms stretched to put them in the various drawers and compartments that dominated the rear wall. Occasionally he’d bring one of the unlabeled packets up to his nose and sniff it before packing it away where it belonged. The last thing Sook Jai unpacked were wooden boxes, packed lunches for both him and his uncle. 

“Sorry there’s not one for you Kososusosu.” Sook Jai said. 

“Oh that’s fine.” I said. 

My words were slightly drowned out by the incessant “kerro-kerroing” of the soot sprites. Sook Jai set his boxed lunch down on the ground and came over to me. He reached into the bag, his hand coming away with what looked like several piece of sugar candy. They were roughly star shaped, and he tossed them to the soot sprites like he was feeding chickens. 

“You’ve got to actually feed them, you know.” He said. 

“Oh. Right.” I said. 

“Go on give it a try.” He prompted. 

I stuck a hand into the bag. The candies were strangely cold, as though they’d been sitting in an ice box. I tossed them to the little creatures who scooped them up off the ground and danced around with their treats. 

“That’s the way.” Sook Jai said, giving me a pat on the back and then returning to his box. He ate with chopsticks just like Shay had. “Itadakimas!” 

A word I didn’t recognize but I was beginning to just gather it may have been Japanese. “Itadakimas.” Kamaji said. 

I couldn’t stand to keep feeding the little sprites as though they were farm animals. Once the two of them were distracted with food and conversation I knelt down and began to hand out the candies one by one. The soot sprites were quick to adapt, forming themselves into one long winding line in front of me. Each one bowed to me after taking the candies. I let them choose which they liked from the four colors, pink, white, orange and green. I started dipping my head to them after they’d taken their candies. The sprites broke off into little groups dancing around in circles of five or six before consuming their food. 

I wanted to give the last one in line two for having waited so long, but he took one of the orange ones and danced away before I had the chance. My fingers were black, so I dusted them off on my apron after closing the bag of soot sprite food. 

“Thank you for letting me feed them.” I said bowing to Kamaji and Sook Jai. 

“No problem.” Sook Jai said. 

“I should be going now.” I said. “Thank you for letting me visit.” 

Kamaji didn’t say anything, his mouth was full but he clicked his chopsticks together in a dismissive manner that made it seem like I hadn’t troubled him in the slightest. 

“Come back tomorrow, you can feed them again and keep Uncle ‘Aaji from leaving me out in the cold.” Sook Jai said. 

“I will.” I said, bowing once more and then crawling through the tiny door. Riding up to Fwahe and Frigga’s room to join them for dinner, my heart rose with the floor numbers. It didn’t feel quite so heavy anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> https://www.patreon.com/2ndtothewrite
> 
> Thanks!

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this story and want to help me continue writing them please consider supporting me on Patreon  
> https://www.patreon.com/2ndtothewrite
> 
> Thanks!


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